Stick Marsh - it's an experience

Submitted by: Scott Welcome
10/19/04

Recovery from Hurricane Charles, Frances, Jeanne, and Ivan will be a sometimes slow and agonizing process, but its effects on the fishing in Florida will be minor and will in fact improve the fishing for most of the state. The turn-around from a slowdown on the Marsh due to high water, floating debris, and dirty water is almost complete and the fishing in most of the lake can only be described as fantastic.

Over the last two days the fishing has changed very little, with the majority of the fish being caught in and around current, and on the south end of Farm13. The best baits have been Carolina rigged Senkos, rattletraps, crank bait’s, Long A’s and live bait. The water is clearing up and the bass are as healthy as ever. Shad and shiners are there in abundance and the bass are having a field day feasting on the bait. Water levels are still very high so other than the occasional floater, running around the lake presents no problems.
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On 10/18/2004 I had Craig Alexander from Midlothian, Virginia out for a day of sun and what would prove to be excellent fishing. Craig is no stranger to the lake as he has spent many days on the lake in the winters, however this experience would be his best ever as we spent the entire day in the spillway catching fish all day long. The majority of the fish were caught on Carolina rigged Senkos in dark colors. At 11:00am St. John's Water Management personnel came down and lowered the spillway to 2 feet, which of course cause the current to slow down, but the fishing actually improved with less current. The best baits in the afternoon where crank baits and Long A’s. We headed back to the ramp at 3:00pm after catching over 175 bass.
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On 10/19/2004 I spent the day fishing with David Kuncl from Lincoln, Nebraska and his friend Mary Ebert. We headed to the spillway and tied off on the pole. While David and Mary were busy catching bass on Carolina rigged Senkos I set out a couple of rods with shiners that we had. After a little practice David and Mary got the hang of fishing with live bait and began catching with Mary do most of the catching. The bite on the live bait started a little slow so David switched back to Senkos and caught bass immediately. Early in the morning they decided to shut the spillway completely but the bass continued to bite. We had more live bait in the live well so I moved the boat up closer to the spillway. The catching was strong and steady until we left at 3:00pm with countless bass making there way into the boat. We never did catch the big bass today but with the bass averaging 2 to 4 pounds they had a great time.

Submitted 10/19/04 by George: I got a call from Steve P. who offered to take me out as my boat sits waiting for a new power head. First light found us in the spillway working C-rigs, crank baits, and rattle traps. We stayed until the gate was lowered and caught bass on most casts.


When the gate was lowered we headed out into the Farm. After a very short time of looking we discovered a school that was active. We anchored, we cast, and we caught on just about every cast. Today Steve was keeping track of the bass and by days end, (1:30) Steve announced that we had just broke 190 bass to the boat. We headed back to the ramp with tired arms, shoulders and wrists after another great day on the unbeatable and famous Stick Marsh/Farm 13.

We have a couple of days open in October so give us a shout. See you on the water.

[fredhatch]

Finally nice to meet one of ya. Spillway was closed but still boated 4-5 bass 2-3#'s. Went to the ledge between the two and caught a few more around the same size. Wind was to much for my little boat out in the open. Thanks for the advice, hope to meet the other half one of these days. Also will be checking out Lk Carney soon.